Smith Julia Evelina (2 results)
More imagesPublished by American Publishing Company, Hartford, Connecticut, 1876
- Hardcover
- First Edition
Seller: Donald A. Heald Rare Books (ABAA), New York, NY, U.S.A.Donald A. Heald Rare Books (ABAA)
Contact seller5-star seller4to. (9 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches). [2], 892 pp. (Old Testament); 276 pp. (New Testament). Original publisher?s brown pebble-grain cloth, blind stamped boards, spine and upper cover lettered in gilt First edition of the first complete English Bible translated by a woman, a touchstone of American printing, feminism, and religious schola…rship in the original publisher's binding. Born in Glastonbury, Connecticut in 1792, Julia Evelina Smith taught herself Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and French while earning a living as a schoolteacher and, later, as an outspoken abolitionist and suffragist. In 1843 she began to test the English Bible against the originals and soon resolved, as she writes in her preface, "to put the same English word for the same Hebrew or Greek word, everywhere.It may seem presumptuous for an ordinary woman with no particular advantages of education to translate and publish alone, the most wonderful book that has ever appeared in the world.It took me about seven years to accomplish the five translations." Working verse by verse, Smith produced five complete drafts, twice from Greek, twice from Hebrew, once from Latin, finishing in 1855. When commercial publishers declined to issue so unconventional a text, she underwrote the project herself, consigning it to Hartford's American Publishing Company in the nation's centennial year. The resulting volume is the first complete English Bible translated by a woman and remains the only one executed single-handedly without editorial committee or co-translator. Smith's method is uncompromisingly literal: Hebrew tense shifts and Greek word order are preserved even when the English prose becomes rugged. The translation therefore offers modern readers an unfiltered view of the underlying languages and stands in pointed contrast to the smoother, interpretive revisions then underway in Britain and America. Earlier centuries had seen only partial female forays into Scripture such as Anne Locke's 1560 sonnet-cycle on Psalm 51 and the Countess of Pembroke's masterly completion of the Sidney Psalter after her brother's death, but none covered the full canon. Smith's 1876 Bible stands today as both a landmark of American print culture and a quiet declaration of intellectual equality. Simms, The Bible in America, pp. 149-50; Stanton, The Woman's Bible, p. 151; Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.
Published by American Publishing Company, Hartford, Conn., 1876
- Hardcover
- First Edition
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.Raptis Rare Books
Contact seller5-star sellerFirst edition of the first complete translation of the Bible into English done by a woman, Julia E. Smith (1792-1886), of Glastonbury Connecticut. One of 1,000 copies printed. Quarto, bound in full modern calf with morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers. In near fine condition. An invaluable Bible for its perio…d which remains a rare translation. In her preface to the present volume, Smith states: "It may seem presumptuous for an ordinary woman with no particular advantages of education to translate and publish alone, the most wonderful book that has ever appeared in the world, and thought to be the most difficult to translate. It has occupied the time and attention of the wisest and most learned of all ages, believing, as the world has believed, that such only could give the correct rendering of the language in which the Bible was written. It may seem presumptuous for an ordinary woman with no particular advantages of education to translate and publish alone, the most wonderful book that has ever appeared in the world, and thought to be the most difficult to translate. It has occupied the time and attention of the wisest and most learned of all ages, believing, as the world has believed, that such only could give the correct rendering of the language in which the Bible was written." Smith began her translation in 1847 and finished it in 1855. In 1876, at 84 years of age, some 21 years after completing her work, she finally sought publication. The publication costs ($4,000) were personally funded by Julia and her sister Abby Smith. The 1,000 copies printed were offered for $2.50 each, but her household auction in 1884 sold about 50 remaining copies. The translation was one of only a few contemporary English translations out of the original languages available to English readers until the publication of the Revised Version in 1881â"1894. This makes it an invaluable Bible for its period. The translation also appears to have been banned in its history, likely due to the translator being a woman, and it remains a rare translation.
